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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\nRADley is the biggest physical and most complicated attempt I have \nmade at a hobby robot. I\u2019ve done nearly all the things that I am doing here \nbefore, but only one at a time or a few together. With RADley I hope to merge \nmost of what I\u2019ve learned into one platform to have around to work with and \nenjoy\u2026 or get really, really frustrated with.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve done various \nthings like dead reckoning, accelerometer\/gyro use, PC integration for voice \ncontrols and speech, multiple sonar sensors for item location and tracking, GPS \nreading and targeting, IR remote control, light tracking and following, RGB LED \nuse for eyes and mouths including blinking for personality presentation, and \nother animation and sensor uses and more. They are all easy enough to break into \nsubsystems, but getting them all into one brain is really a completely different \nprocess from what I\u2019ve done before. One would like to think that it\u2019s just a \nbunch of sub systems so put them all on and tie them together. I don\u2019t think \nit\u2019s quite that easy as the \u201ctying them all together\u201d part is the biggest \nchallenge I see coming up. \n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time will tell if once again I get \noverwhelmed and bored since it\u2019s not as silly as my other stuff or keep pecking \naway at it subsystem by subsystem.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall Goals and Features<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\nI always \nhate stating \u201cgoals\u201d for a hobby project like this as most of my projects \nmeander around until something end up sticking, but I do have some vision of \nwhat I want to see feature set wise, and what the end result should look and act \nlike. So with that in mind I envision RADley as a mobile robot that sits in the \ncorner on his charging stand most of the time but is still able to be talked to \nwhile charging. He will respond to preset voice commands like my \u201cHead Bot\u201d \nprojects do but will have more commands available for motion activities, modes, \nmoods, etc. To back up the voice commands an IR receiver will be used as voice \nisn\u2019t always possible with noisy real world situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He should be \nable to navigate reasonably well keeping from getting stuck as much as possible. \nHe should have a general idea of where he is at from his base by dead reckoning \nand a compass with possible GPS info for a general idea of where he is in the \nworld \/ house. He should be able to \u201chear\u201d sounds and have a general idea of \nwhich direction the loudest area is at as well as see light levels to know where \nit\u2019s the brightest or dimmest area or direction is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He should have \nsome \u201cpersonality\u201d including realistic feeling \u201cblinking\u201d eyes, rotating head \nand other means of expressing some type of basic emotion with the limited hard \nmovements that he has to deal with. This could be through sound effects, \nanimated antennae, and overall posture and positioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He should be \nable to eventually locate his charging base and connect to it based on some form \nof trigger, preferably self motivated either by darkness or low battery \nconditions but also by voice or IR command. I have a Wii sensor I hope will make \nthis easier but I\u2019ve actually never used it before so we will see if I actually \ncan make it work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So those are the basic ideas behind RADley and I\u2019m \nsure more will develop along the way and very likely some ideas will be dropped \nwhen I can\u2019t make them actually work. \n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n